Systems and methods for creating an asynchronous social watching experience among users

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are disclosed herein for creating a co-watching experience among audience members who are physically apart when watching the media asset. A media guidance application may monitor a sound of the first user. In response to the sound being detected during the monitoring, the media guidance application may determine whether the first user emitted the sound based on an occurrence in the video. In response to determining that the first user emitted the sound based on an occurrence in the video, the media guidance application may store the sound in connection with a timecode of the video corresponding to a time when the sound is detected. When the video is displayed to a second user, the sound of the first user may be played back based on the timecode of the video stored in connection with the sound. In this way, even if users are physically apart, or may watch a media asset at separate times, by sharing and playing back recorded vocal expression of a user, other users may perceive the vocal expression of the user to create a co-watching experience.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/992,967, filed May 30, 2018, currently allowed, which is herebyincorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Users may enjoy the experience of watching media in a group,particularly in seeing the reactions of friends to the shows they areall interested in watching. However, coordinating with friends to watchthe same show at the same time at the same place is difficult, asmultiple users may not be available to watch the show at the same time.Some existing media systems may help people who are physically apartshare a viewing experience of a media asset by sharing user comments(e.g., textual comments) of the media asset. Conventionally, some mediasystems may aggregate textual comments from audience users who watch thesame media asset, and display the aggregated comments to each user sothat each respective user may see what other users commented about aspecific occurrence in the media asset. For example, some media systemsmay overlay textual comments as ticker banners overlaying the displayscreen while the media asset is being played. The aggregated tickercomments, however, can sometimes obstruct visibility of the display ofthe media asset. And when there are a lot of comments from other users,and not every comment is of a particular user's interest, the volume ofcomments may disrupt the user's viewing experience. In addition, aticker comment shown on the display screen provides very limited sharingand social watching experience to users. For example, when familymembers are physically apart, but would like to watch a sports gametogether, each family member would have to manually input textualcomments for other family members to see the comment. The socialwatching experience through sharing comment overlay is quite limited.

SUMMARY

Systems and methods are disclosed herein for storing a user vocalcomment relating to a media asset for augmenting playback of the mediaasset to another user to create a social viewing experience of the mediaasset when creating a co-watching experience for users even when theusers are physically apart or watch the media asset at separate times.By capturing and sharing user reactions such as vocal expression made bya first user in response to content of the media asset with anotheruser, the other user may perceive the user reaction in a simulated waythat resembles a co-watching experience with the first user.

Specifically, a media guidance application may monitor a sound of thefirst user. In response to the sound being detected during themonitoring, the media guidance application may determine whether thefirst user emitted the sound based on an occurrence in the video. Inresponse to determining that the first user emitted the sound based onan occurrence in the video, the media guidance application may store thesound in connection with a timecode of the video corresponding to a timewhen the sound is detected. When the video is displayed to a seconduser, the sound of the first user may be played back based on thetimecode of the video stored in connection with the sound. In this way,even if users are physically apart, or may watch a media asset atseparate times, by sharing and playing back recorded vocal expression ofa user, other users may perceive the vocal expression of the user tocreate a co-watching experience.

The media guidance application may capture, via audio capturingcircuitry, when the media asset is being played at a first playbackposition, an audio recording of ambient sound from an environment atwhich a first user is present. For example, the media guidanceapplication may periodically, intermittently or constantly recordambient background noise of the room where the user is present. Themedia guidance application may then determine whether the audiorecording of ambient sound includes a vocal expression, and may extracta set of mono signals from the audio recording, e.g., by converting aplurality of audio signals from the audio recordings to the frequencydomain via Fourier transform, and identifying mono signals among thefrequency domain representation.

In response to determining that the audio recording of ambient soundincludes the vocal expression from at least one user from the userspresent, the media guidance application may determine a playbackposition corresponding to a time when the vocal expression is captured,and then retrieve a segment of the media asset prior to the playbackposition, e.g., a segment of a pre-defined length (5 seconds, 10seconds, etc.). The media guidance application may then retrievemetadata corresponding to the segment of the media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determinewhether the vocal expression includes one or more identifiable keywords,and then calculate a difference metric of the variation patternindicative of a degree of difference among the sequence of syllables,and determine whether the difference metric is greater than apre-defined difference threshold. The media guidance application mayretrieve metadata corresponding to a segment of the media asset that isimmediately before the playback position of the media asset, and comparethe retrieved metadata with the one or more keywords. The media guidanceapplication may then determine, based on the comparing, that the vocalexpression is related to an occurrence during the segment of the mediaasset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may utilize a datagraph to build the logic relationship between the metadata and the vocalexpression. Specifically, the media guidance application may identifyone or more terms from the retrieved metadata corresponding to thesegment of the media asset that is immediately before the first playbackposition of the media asset. The media guidance application may thenretrieve a data graph representing a logic relationship between contentterms relating to the media asset. The media guidance application maydetermine, from the data graph, a first node representing at least oneof the one or more keywords from the vocal expression. The mediaguidance application may then determine, from the data graph, a secondnode representing at least one of the identified one or more terms fromthe retrieved metadata. The media guidance application may thendetermine, based on the data graph, a connection between the first nodeand the second node, e.g., a path comprising several edges between theterms on the graph. In response to determining that the length of theconnection between the first node and the second node is shorter than apre-defined distance, e.g., indicating that the two terms aresufficiently close to form a possible causal relationship, the mediaguidance application may determine that the vocal expression is relatedto the at least one term representing an occurrence during the segmentof the media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine, basedon characteristics of the connection between the first node and thesecond node, a type of a relationship between at least one of the one ormore keywords from the vocal expression and at least one of theidentified one or more terms from the retrieved metadata. For example,the data graph may specify a relationship represented by an edge, basedon which the media guidance application may determine a causalrelationship. For another example, the media guidance application maydetermine the type of relationship based on a length of the distancebetween two nodes, e.g., when the distance is shorter than a pre-definedthreshold, the two nodes may represent a causal relationship.

In some embodiments, in response to determining that the type of therelationship is a causal relationship, the media guidance applicationmay assign a relatively higher priority score to the at least onekeyword. For another example, in response to determining that the typeof the relationship is a non-causal relationship, the media guidanceapplication may assign a relatively lower priority score to the at leastone keyword. The media guidance application may transmit, to a server,the vocal expression in connection with an assigned priority score andthe playback position of the media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may exclude userreactions that may not respond to the media asset watching, e.g., whenthe user is distracted by reading emails, playing video games on theuser device, etc. Specifically, the media guidance application maymonitor user activity during a time period corresponding to the segmentof the media asset, e.g., to determine whether the user is payingattention to the media asset, or is distracted by other activities. Themedia guidance application may capture, via monitoring circuitry userphysiological data corresponding to the time period when the segment ofthe media asset is played. For example, the media guidance applicationmay record a video from the scene where the user is present to captureuser activities, or an audio recording from the environment to captureambient noise indicative of user activities.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may also retrieveuser application history corresponding to user device activities duringthe time period when the segment of the media asset is played.Specifically, the media guidance application may determine whether thevocal expression is caused by an event associated with the first userfrom the user physiological data and the user application history. Inresponse to determining that the vocal expression is caused by the eventassociated with the first user from the user physiological data and theuser application history, the media guidance application may refrainfrom storing the vocal expression.

In response to determining that the vocal expression is related to theoccurrence during the segment of the media asset, the media guidanceapplication may store the vocal expression in connection with the firstplayback position of the media asset. In some embodiments, prior toplayback the recorded vocal expression to another user when the mediaasset is played at a later time to the other user, the media guidanceapplication may determine whether to share the vocal expression withanother user per privacy setting. Specifically, the media guidanceapplication may receive an indication that the media asset is beingplayed to another user. The media guidance application may then query auser database for a user profile corresponding to the other user, basedon which the media guidance application may determine a connectionbetween users, e.g., whether the noted users are socially connected. Themedia guidance application may then retrieve a privacy setting profilecorresponding to the first user, and determine whether the other user isan authorized user to share the vocal expressions recorded and storedfrom the first user based on the social connection and the privacysetting profile.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive at thesame user equipment at a second time, a request from the second user toplayback the media asset. The media guidance application may thengenerate for display, at first user equipment and at the second time,the media asset to the second user, and retrieve, from a local database,the stored vocal expression corresponding to the first playback positionwhen the vocal expression is recorded. The media guidance applicationmay then generate for audio playback the stored vocal expression at thefirst playback position of the media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may share the vocalexpression with a cloud server such that different users, differentdevices, different user equipment and/or different media guidanceapplications implemented at different set-top boxes at differenthouseholds may retrieve and playback the stored vocal expressions. Forexample, in response to generating for display, at first user equipmentand at the second time, the media asset to the second user, the mediaguidance application may transmit, to a server, a query including amedia asset title of the media asset for vocal expressions relating tothe media asset from other users. In response to the query, the mediaguidance application may receive, from the server, a plurality of vocalexpressions relating to the media asset, and each vocal expressioncorresponds to a respective user identifier and a respective playbackposition when the respective vocal expression was recorded.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may filter vocalexpressions that are stored with the media asset and only play a subsetof more relevant vocal expressions to avoid adding too many audioannotations to the media asset playback. The media guidance applicationmay selectively playback a subset of the available vocal expressions toavoid the audio playback of the vocal expressions is overly crowded(e.g., vocal expressions that are too close in time, etc.) and disruptsthe user viewing experience. Specifically, the media guidanceapplication may retrieve a first vocal expression corresponding to thefirst playback position and retrieving a second vocal expressioncorresponding to the second playback position, and determine whether anamount of time between the first playback position and the secondplayback position is smaller than a threshold, e.g., five seconds, etc.In response to determining that the amount of time between the firstplayback position and the second playback position is smaller than thethreshold, the media guidance application may select one of the firstvocal expression and the second vocal expression that has a higherpriority score.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative example diagram 100 for storing a uservocal comment relating to a media asset for augmenting playback of themedia asset to another user to create a social viewing experience of themedia asset, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows an example block diagram illustrating sharing recordedvocal expressions captured from a user, within embodiments describedherein;

FIG. 3 provides an example block diagram illustrating recommendingviewing experience from other users when a user selects to play back amedia asset, within embodiments described herein;

FIG. 4 shows an illustrative embodiment of a display screen that may beused to provide media guidance application listings and other mediaguidance information, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 5 shows another illustrative embodiment of a display screen thatmay be used to provide media guidance application listings, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment (UE) devicein accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 8 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for storing a uservocal comment relating to a media asset for augmenting playback of themedia asset to another user to create a social viewing experience of themedia asset, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 9 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for determining,based at least on the user activity and the metadata, whether the vocalexpression is related to the occurrence during the segment of the mediaasset, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 10 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for determiningwhether to share the vocal expression with another user based on privacysettings prior to causing, when the media asset is displayed at a secondtime later than the first time to a second user, the stored vocalexpression to be played back at the first playback position of the mediaasset, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure; and

FIG. 11 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for filteringvocal expressions stored with a media asset when causing, when the mediaasset is displayed at a second time later than the first time to asecond user, the stored vocal expression to be played back at the firstplayback position of the media asset, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods are disclosed herein for storing a user vocalcomment relating to a media asset for augmenting playback of the mediaasset to another user to create a social viewing experience of the mediaasset. Specifically, a media guidance application, which is implementedat a set-top box of user equipment, may be used to engage an audiocapturing device (e.g., a microphone, etc.) to capture an audiorecording from the environment where the user is present. The mediaguidance application may detect a vocal expression provided by a userfrom the audio recording, e.g., when the user makes a comment about themedia asset that the user is watching, or gasps in response to anoccurrence during a live sports event, etc. The media guidanceapplication may then record the vocal expression to playback when themedia asset is played back to another user so as to create a co-watchingexperience between the user and the other user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may record reactionsof friends, e.g., vocal expressions, while watching the show at adifferent time or place from when the reaction was recorded. The mediaguidance application may identify social groups or connected friends ofa user, e.g., based on a user's social profile. When a friend of theuser is watching a show, the viewer is interested in, the media assetapplication may record audio, video, and/or sensory data of the friendwatching the show. When the friend reacts to the content of the show,the media asset application may capture the reaction and informationabout the timing of the reaction in relation to the content of the show(e.g., a playback position of the media asset). When the user iswatching the same show, e.g., either at a different time, or at the sametime with the user's friend but at a different location, the mediaguidance application may cause the playback of the friend's reactions,e.g., a recorded vocal expression of the friend, to the user at thecorresponding playback position of the media asset so that the user canhave a co-watching experience with the user's friend.

As referred to herein, the term “vocal expression” refers to anexpression, a sound, a statement and/or the like uttered by a humanuser. For example, the vocal expression is audibly detectable andrecordable as an audio file. Within embodiments described herein, vocalexpressions from users are recorded and played back to other users tocreate a co-watching experience. However, user reactions such as usermovement, user biometrics data, and/or other forms of user reactions maybe recorded in the form of a video file, and/or the like, and may beplayed back to other users to create a co-watching experience in ananalogous manner as the playback of the vocal expression according toembodiments described herein.

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in VOD systems),Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadable content,Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information, pictures,rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles, books,electronic books, blogs, chat sessions, social media, applications,games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/or combination of thesame. Guidance applications also allow users to navigate among andlocate content. As referred to herein, the term “multimedia” should beunderstood to mean content that utilizes at least two different contentforms described above, for example, text, audio, images, video, orinteractivity content forms. Content may be recorded, played, displayedor accessed by user equipment devices, but can also be part of a liveperformance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded oncomputer-readable media. Computer-readable media includes any mediacapable of storing data. The computer readable media may be transitory,including, but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagneticsignals, or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to,volatile and non-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as ahard disk, floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, registermemory, processor caches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

It is to be noted that embodiments described herein may be implementedby a media guidance application implemented on a set-top box, or anyother application that receives media guidance data and that can beconfigured to remotely communicate with a set-top box.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not use. As referred to herein, thephrase “user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,”“electronic device,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,”or “media device” should be understood to mean any device for accessingthe content described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters” or providers” logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

As referred to herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated asa result of. For example, a first action being performed in response toa second action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred to herein, the term “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to a second action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative example diagram 100 for storing a uservocal comment relating to a media asset for augmenting playback of themedia asset to another user to create a social viewing experience of themedia asset, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.Diagram 100 shows two scenes 100 a and 100 b. Scene 100 a includes userequipment 106 that may include a step-top box, on which the mediaguidance application is implemented. The screen of user equipment 106may display an interactive media guidance application, which may causethe display of a media asset, e.g., “Bachelor” 108 to the audience,e.g., a group of users 102 a-c. Scene 100 b includes user equipment 116which may be similar to 106 in scene 100 a, which also may cause thedisplay of a media asset, e.g., the same “Bachelor” show 108, to user102 d.

For example, users 102 a-d may usually like to watch the “Bachelor” showas a group together, but user 102 d may not be able to watch the episodeof the week with the normal group of users 102 a-c. As shown in scene100 a, when the group of users 102 a-c watch the “Bachelor” show 108,the media guidance application may capture, e.g., via a video camera 110(or an audio recorder), all the gasps and reactionary utterances fromthe users 102 a-c. For example, a vocal expression from user 102 c, “Canyou believe he chooses Nina?!” at 112 b, and a vocal expression fromuser 102 a of “Unbelievable” 112 a may be captured by the video or audiorecorder 110. At scene 100 b, when user 102 d watches the same“Bachelor” episode 108, which may be at the same time when the episodeis aired but at a different location from the users 102 a-c, or at alater time than the time when users 102 a-c watches the episode 108,captured and stored reactions such as vocal expressions 112 a-b areretrieved and presented to the user 102 d, e.g., as part of audioannotations 113 a-b at the corresponding playback positions during theepisode 108 when the original vocal expressions 112 a-b were captured.

Specifically, the media guidance application may capture, via audiocapturing circuitry, when the media asset is being played at a firstplayback position, an audio recording of ambient sound from anenvironment at which users 102 a-c are present. For example, the mediaguidance application may periodically, intermittently or constantlyrecord ambient background noise of the room where the user is present.In some implementations, an audio or a video capturing device 110, whichmay be implemented with user equipment 106, may be used to capture theaudio recording. In another implementation, a client component of themedia guidance application running on a user device 114 may be used tocapture the audio recording.

The media guidance application may then determine whether the audiorecording of ambient sound includes a vocal expression, e.g., 112 a-b,from any of the users 102 a-c. For example, the media guidanceapplication may detect whether the recorded ambient noise from the scene100 a contains a human voice corresponding to any of the users 102 a-c.The media guidance application may extract a set of mono signals fromthe audio recording, e.g., by converting a plurality of audio signalsfrom the audio recordings to the frequency domain via Fourier transform,and identifying mono signals among the frequency domain representation.For each mono signal from the set of mono signals, the media guidanceapplication may generate a set of audio characteristics corresponding tothe mono signal. For example, the set of audio characteristics includesany of mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC), perceptual linearprediction relative spectra (PLP-RASTA). For another example, the set ofaudio characteristics may include the spectrum range, strength, and/orthe like. The media guidance application may then retrieve, from theprofile of the user (e.g., from storage 608 in FIG. 6), a set of vocalcharacteristics, which may include the pitch, loudness, MFCC, PLP-RASTA,and/or the like.

The media guidance application may compare each characteristic of theset of audio characteristics with a corresponding characteristic fromthe set of vocal characteristics of the same type.

For example, the media guidance application determines whether the MFCCof the mono signal and the stored MFCC of the user's voice are within asmall range of difference (e.g., 3%, 5%, etc.). If the characteristicsof the same kind are within the small rage of difference, the twocharacteristics are considered to be a match. The media guidanceapplication may then determine whether the set of audio characteristicsand the set of vocal characteristics overlap, e.g., match, for more thana similarity threshold (e.g., 65%, 68%, etc.). In response todetermining that the set of audio characteristics and the set of vocalcharacteristics overlap for more than the similarity threshold, themedia guidance application may identify the mono signal as a vocalexpression from the respective user. For example, as shown in FIG. 1,the media guidance application may capture an audio including a vocalexpression 112 a having matching audio characteristics with user 102 a,and a vocal expression 112 b having matching audio characteristics withuser 102 c.

In response to determining that the audio recording of ambient soundincludes the vocal expression from at least one user from the users 102a-c, the media guidance application may determine whether the vocalexpression relates to any occurrence from the Bachelor show 108.Specifically, the media guidance application may determine a playbackposition corresponding to a time when the vocal expression is captured,and then retrieve a segment of the media asset prior to the playbackposition, e.g., a segment of a pre-defined length (5 seconds, 10seconds, etc.). The media guidance application may then retrievemetadata corresponding to the segment of the media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determinewhether the vocal expression is related to an occurrence during thesegment of the media asset based on keyword matching between the vocalexpression and the metadata corresponding to the segment of the mediaasset. Specifically, the media guidance application may determinewhether the vocal expression includes one or more identifiable keywords.For example, the media guidance application may generate a sequence ofsyllables from the vocal expression, e.g., “un-be-lie-va-ble” for thevocal expression 112 a, and generate a variation pattern from thesequence of syllables. The media guidance application may then calculatea difference metric of the variation pattern indicative of a degree ofdifference among the sequence of syllables, and determine whether thedifference metric is greater than a pre-defined difference threshold.For example, in response to determining that the vocal expressionincludes one or more identifiable keywords, the media guidanceapplication may identify, via speech recognition analysis, one or morekeywords from the vocal expression, such as “unbelievable,” “believe,”“Nina,” “choose(s)” and/or the like. The media guidance application mayretrieve metadata corresponding to a segment of the media asset that isimmediately before the playback position of the media asset, and comparethe retrieved metadata with the one or more keywords. The media guidanceapplication may then determine, based on the comparing, that the vocalexpression is related to an occurrence during the segment of the mediaasset. For example, when the “Bachelor” show 108 shows that the bachelorchooses a contestant named “Nina,” the subtitle from the metadata ofthis segment may include the keyword “Nina,” and may have a match withthe vocal expression 112 b of “can you believe he chooses Nina.” Themedia guidance application may then determine that the vocal expression112 b is related to the segment of the media asset 108.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may analyze of thecontent of the media asset 108 to infer whether reactions 112 a-b arerelevant to the media asset 108. For example, the media guidanceapplication may use content of the media asset and metadata such as thesoundtrack, changing color tones of scene in the media asset, differentshot placement, quick cuts, zooming, or panning effects that aredisplayed during the playback of the media asset 108 to determine asentiment associated with the media asset. For example, if the mediaguidance application determines changed background music with a stunningsound effect around the playback position when vocal expressions 112 a-bare captured, the media guidance application may determine that thekeywords “unbelievable,” “can,” “you,” “believe,” etc., and the tone ofthe vocal expressions 112 a-b are consistent with the sound effect. Themedia guidance application may then correlate the vocal expressions 112a-b with the content of the media asset 108.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determinewhether a vocal expression is related to a segment of the media asset ata playback position by assessing a logical relationship based on a datagraph, in addition to keyword matching. For example, the vocalexpression 112 a of “unbelievable” from user 102 a may not have anymatching keyword with the subtitle of the media asset, but the vocalexpression 112 a is caused by the segment of the show when the bachelorchooses a contestant named “Nina.” In this case, the media guidanceapplication may utilize a data graph to build the logic relationshipbetween the metadata and the vocal expression. For example, the datagraph may include a set of nodes, each representing a term, and eachedge connecting two nodes representing a direct relationship between thetwo terms indicative by the two nodes. The distance between two nodesindicates a degree of closeness between the two terms represented by thetwo nodes.

Specifically, the media guidance application may identify one or moreterms from the retrieved metadata corresponding to the segment of themedia asset that is immediately before the first playback position ofthe media asset. The media guidance application may then retrieve a datagraph representing a logic relationship between content terms relatingto the media asset. The media guidance application may determine, fromthe data graph, a first node representing at least one of the one ormore keywords from the vocal expression. For example, the media guidanceapplication may locate a first node indicative of the word“unbelievable” from vocal expression 112 a on the data graph. The mediaguidance application may then determine, from the data graph, a secondnode representing at least one of the identified one or more terms fromthe retrieved metadata. For example, the media guidance application mayidentify terms from the subtitle of the “Bachelor” show at the time whenuser 102 a utters “unbelievable” 112 a, such as “rose ceremony,”“proposal,” and/or the like. The media guidance application may thendetermine, based on the data graph, a connection between the first nodeand the second node, e.g., a path comprising several edges between theterms “unbelievable” and “proposal” on the graph. In response todetermining that the length of the connection between the first node andthe second node is shorter than a pre-defined distance, e.g., indicatingthat the two terms are sufficiently close to form a possible causalrelationship, the media guidance application may determine that thevocal expression is related to the at least one term representing anoccurrence during the segment of the media asset. For example, the firstnode indicative of the term “unbelievable” may be connected to the term“proposal” via the path of “unbelievable,” “surprise,” “event” and“proposal.”

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine, basedon characteristics of the connection between the first node and thesecond node, a type of a relationship between at least one of the one ormore keywords from the vocal expression and at least one of theidentified one or more terms from the retrieved metadata. For example,the data graph may specify a relationship represented by an edge, basedon which the media guidance application may determine that the term“proposal” and the keyword “unbelievable” may have a causalrelationship. For another example, the media guidance application maydetermine the type of relationship based on a length of the distancebetween two nodes, e.g., when the distance is shorter than a pre-definedthreshold, the two nodes may represent a causal relationship.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may assign apriority score to a vocal expression depending on a type of relationshipbetween the keyword from the vocal expression and the terms from themedia asset. Specifically, in response to determining that the type ofthe relationship is a causal relationship, the media guidanceapplication may assign a relatively higher priority score to the atleast one keyword, e.g., the vocal expression 112 a of “unbelievable”may be caused by the segment when the bachelor chooses a contestant“Nina” in the “Bachelor” show 108. For another example, in response todetermining that the type of the relationship is a non-causalrelationship, the media guidance application may assign a relativelylower priority score to the at least one keyword. For example, a vocalexpression of “this episode is so slow,” representing a general commenton the media asset, instead of having a causal relationship from aspecific segment at the playback position may be assigned with a lowerpriority score. The media guidance application may transmit, to aserver, the vocal expression in connection with an assigned priorityscore and the playback position of the media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may exclude userreactions that may not respond to the media asset watching, e.g., whenthe user is distracted by reading emails, playing video games on theuser device 114, etc. For example, the media guidance application mayuse biometric information, gaze detection or other information to detecta user's reaction and more particularly to determine whether thereaction was in context to the friend's viewing of the show. Forexample, if the media guidance application detects that user 102 cgasped but also determines user 102 c was not looking at the screen ofuser equipment 106, but instead was looking at the user device 114, themedia guidance application may filter the reaction out as irrelevant tothe viewing experience of media asset 108. On the other hand, if user102 c is looking at the screen or section of the screen of userequipment 106 when a vocal expression 112 b was captured, the mediaguidance application may determine the reaction is relevant.Specifically, the media guidance application may monitor user activityduring a time period corresponding to the segment of the media asset,e.g., to determine whether the user is paying attention to the mediaasset, or is distracted by other activities. The media guidanceapplication may capture, via monitoring circuitry (e.g., a video cameraor audio recorder 110, etc.), user physiological data corresponding tothe time period when the segment of the media asset is played. Forexample, the media guidance application may record a video from thescene where the user is present to capture user activities, or an audiorecording from the environment to capture ambient noise indicative ofuser activities.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may also retrieveuser application history corresponding to user device activities duringthe time period when the segment of the media asset is played. Forexample, the user application history from the user device 114 mayindicate whether the user has been paying attention to the media asset108. If a video gaming application has been actively engaged around thetime when the vocal expression 112 a or 112 b is captured, the mediaguidance application may correlate the application usage event todetermine what is an actual cause of the vocal expression 112 a-b.Specifically, the media guidance application may determine whether thevocal expression is caused by an event associated with the first userfrom the user physiological data and the user application history. Inresponse to determining that the vocal expression is caused by the eventassociated with the first user from the user physiological data and theuser application history, the media guidance application may refrainfrom storing the vocal expression 112 a or 112 b. Further detail ondetermining whether a user reaction is caused by an event in the mediaasset being played or other factors by monitoring user activities isdiscussed in commonly owned and co-pending PCT international applicationno. PCT/US2018/024749, filed on Mar. 28, 2018, which is hereby expresslyincorporated by reference herein by its entirety.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may also use thecollective reactions of a broader population to determine whether vocalexpressions 112 a or 112 b is relevant to the content of the media asset108. For example, if audience within a geographic region who is watchingin real-time, or has watched the same Bachelor show 108, has similarreactions at the same playback position during the show, it is morelikely that vocal expression 112 a-b are triggered by an event in theshow. The media guidance application may obtain a percentage of audiencemembers who reacted in a similar way and determine whether thepercentage exceeds a threshold to infer that vocal expressions 112 a-bwere relevant to the content of the media asset 108.

In response to determining that the vocal expression is related to theoccurrence during the segment of the media asset, the media guidanceapplication may store the vocal expression in connection with the firstplayback position of the media asset. As shown at scene 100 b in FIG. 1,the media guidance application may cause, when the media asset isdisplayed at a second time later than the first time to a second user,the stored vocal expression to be played back at the first playbackposition of the media asset. For example, when user 102 d watches thesame Bachelor show 108 at a later time on user equipment 116, e.g., at adifferent location from users 102 a-c, the recorded vocal expressionsfrom users 102 a and 102 c may be played back to the user 102 d as audioannotations 113 a and 113 b with the media asset 108 at thecorresponding playback position. For another example, the stored vocalexpressions 113 a-b may be played at a user device with the user 102 d.For another example, the stored vocal expressions 113 a-b may beconverted to textual content and be transmitted to the user 102 d viatext, email, and/or the like. In this way, when user 102 d watches theevent from the Bachelor show 108 which triggered the vocal expressions112 a and 112 b from users 102 a and 102 c, respectively, the vocalexpressions 113 a and 113 b may be played back such that the user 102 dmay perceive the reactions from users 102 a and 102 c towards the sameevent in the Bachelor show 108 in synchronization with the playback.

In some embodiments, the captured reaction from a user's friend may bepresented to the user as an audio playback through the same audiochannel at which the media guidance application displays a media asset108. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may detect anindoor location and/or position at which the user is sitting, and usedirectional audio or features of surround sound to make the audio appearto be coming from the seat right next to the user. In some embodiments,the media guidance application may send the vocal expression to apersonal device of the user, such that the audio may appear to begenerated by the side of the user. In some embodiments, when thepersonal device includes an augmented reality (AR) device, such as apair of AR glasses, or other wearable device, the media guidanceapplication may cause the video of the user's friend to be transmittedand displayed to the AR device such that the user may have an immersiveexperience of watching the media asset with his or her friend.

In some embodiments, prior to playback the recorded vocal expression 113a or 113 b to another user when the media asset 108 is played at a latertime to the other user, the media guidance application may determinewhether to share the vocal expression 112 a or 112 b with another userper privacy setting. Specifically, the media guidance application mayreceive an indication that the media asset is being played to anotheruser 102 d. For example, the media guidance application may receive auser request to display media asset 108 at the same user equipment 106at a later time. For another example, the media guidance application mayreceive an indication from a server that the media asset 108 isdisplayer a different user equipment 116, which may or may not beassociated with the user equipment 106 under the same user profile. Themedia guidance application may then query a user database for a userprofile corresponding to the other user 102 d, based on which the mediaguidance application may determine a connection between users 102 a or102 c and the user 102 d, e.g., whether the noted users are sociallyconnected. The media guidance application may then retrieve a privacysetting profile corresponding to the first users, e.g., users 102 a or102 c, and determine whether the other user 102 d is an authorized userto share the vocal expressions 113 a-b recorded and stored from users102 a or 102 c by comparing the social connection between users 102 a or102 c and the other user 102 d with the privacy setting profile. Forexample, the privacy setting profile associated with user 102 c mayspecify that only first-degree connections can share vocal expressionsrecorded from the user 102 c. Accordingly, if the user 102 d is not adirect first-degree connection with user 102 c, vocal expression 113 bmay not be shared with user 102 d. In response to determining that theother user is the authorized user to share the vocal expression from thefirst user, the media guidance application may cause, when the mediaasset is displayed at the second time later than the first time to asecond user, the stored vocal expression to be played back at the firstplayback position of the media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may locally storethe recorded vocal expressions 112 a or 112 b for fast retrieval ofplayback when the media asset 108 is played back on the same userequipment 106 at a later time. Specifically, the media guidanceapplication may receive at the first user equipment (e.g., userequipment 106) at a second time, a request from the second user (e.g.,user 102 d) to playback the media asset 108. The media guidanceapplication may then generate for display, at first user equipment andat the second time, the media asset to the second user, and retrieve,from a local database, the stored vocal expression corresponding to thefirst playback position when the vocal expression 112 a or 110 b isrecorded. The media guidance application may then generate for audioplayback the stored vocal expression 113 a or 113 b at the firstplayback position of the media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may share the vocalexpression 112 a or 112 b with a cloud server such that different users,different devices (e.g., user mobile devices, etc.), different userequipment and/or different media guidance applications implemented atdifferent set-top boxes at different households may retrieve andplayback the stored vocal expressions. For example, the media guidanceapplication may also query for vocal expressions recorded at other userequipment when displaying the media asset 108. Specifically, in responseto generating for display, at first user equipment and at the secondtime, the media asset to the second user, the media guidance applicationmay transmit, to a server, a query including a media asset title of themedia asset for vocal expressions relating to the media asset from otherusers. In response to the query, the media guidance application mayreceive, from the server, a plurality of vocal expressions relating tothe media asset, and each vocal expression corresponds to a respectiveuser identifier and a respective playback position when the respectivevocal expression was recorded.

For example, FIG. 2 shows an example block diagram illustrating sharingrecorded vocal expressions captured from a user, within embodimentsdescribed herein. In some embodiments, the user 102 c, after watchingthe media asset 108, may elect to share recorded watching experience,e.g., in the form of stored audio (or video) files of the vocalexpressions 112 b. For example, the media guidance application mayprompt a menu option 117 for the user 102 c to select to “share yourexperience” by searching the name of a contact of user 102 c. Upon theuser 102 c entering the name of the contact, e.g., the name of user 102d, user 102 d may receive a notification, e.g., via email, text message,etc., notifying that viewing experience from user 102 c is available.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may filter vocalexpressions that are stored with the media asset and only play a subsetof more relevant vocal expressions to avoid adding too many audioannotations to the media asset playback. For example, as describedabove, a cloud server may collect vocal expressions from differentusers, which are recorded when the different users are watching themedia asset 108, e.g., an episode of the Bachelor show. At certainplayback position of the media asset 108, e.g., after a key event suchas a rose ceremony in the show, a large number of vocal expressions oruser reactions in other forms may be collected. The media guidanceapplication may selectively playback a subset of the available vocalexpressions to avoid the audio playback of the vocal expressions isoverly crowded (e.g., vocal expressions that are too close in time,etc.) and disrupts the user viewing experience. Specifically, the mediaguidance application may retrieve a first vocal expression correspondingto the first playback position and retrieving a second vocal expressioncorresponding to the second playback position, and determine whether anamount of time between the first playback position and the secondplayback position is smaller than a threshold, e.g., five seconds, etc.In response to determining that the amount of time between the firstplayback position and the second playback position is smaller than thethreshold, the media guidance application may select one of the firstvocal expression and the second vocal expression that has a higherpriority score. In another example, the media guidance application maydetermine whether the number of vocal expressions associated with asegment around a playback position is greater than a threshold (e.g.,five, seven, etc.), and may then selectively choose only a subset of thenumber of vocal expressions for audio playback. For example, the mediaguidance application may selectively choose a subset of available vocalexpressions for playback with the media asset based on a socialrelationship between each respective user who generated the respectivevocal expression and the user who is watching the media asset, based ona popularity or a rating of a respective user who generates therespective vocal expression (e.g., vocal expressions may be rated uponuser experience), and/or the like.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may provide arecommendation or a notification to another user when vocal expressionsrecorded from a first user are available to create co-watchingexperience. For example, FIG. 3 provides an example block diagramillustrating recommending viewing experience from other users when auser selects to play back a media asset, within embodiments describedherein. The media guidance application may determine whose vocalexpressions the user may be interested in while watching the Bachelorshow, e.g., a social influencer (e.g., Tyra Banks) that the user hasfollowed on social media, and generate a recommendation to “watch theBachelor with Tyra Banks” 118 to the user. Specifically, in response tostoring the vocal expression in connection with the first playbackposition of the media asset, the media guidance application may identifya third user to whom the first user is an influencer based on socialprofiles of the first user and the third user, e.g., when the third userhas followed the first user as a “fan” of the first user on socialmedia. The media guidance application may cause a notificationindicating a title of the media asset and information relating to thevocal expression from the first user to be transmitted to the thirduser. For example, the user may receive a notification (e.g., on usermobile device) recommending the user, or an option item 118 on aninformation page of the Bachelor show 108 displayed on user equipment116 to “watch the Bachelor with Tyra Banks.” In some implementations,upon the user selecting the option “watch the Bachelor with Tyra Banks”118, the media guidance application may prompt a payment option for theuser to pay a fee to download vocal expression recorded from “TyraBanks” in order to create a co-viewing experience with the celebrity. Insome implementations, the downloadable vocal expression from “TyraBanks” may be reviewed and filtered (e.g., to remove sensitive orinappropriate vocal content) to generate the commercially available anddownloadable audio add-on. For another example, when the user selects towatch the Bachelor show 108, the user may select the option “see whowatched this episode of the Bachelor” 119 and see a list of people whosevocal expressions are available for playback with the show, or byentering a person's name whose viewing experience the user is interestedin to search for available vocal expression. In response to thenotification being sent to the third user, the media guidanceapplication may receive a request to download the vocal expression andthen cause an audio file containing the first vocal expression and thefirst playback position to be sent to the third user.

FIGS. 4-5 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 4-5 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform, e.g.,user equipment 106 or the set-top box 120 in FIG. 1. While the displaysof FIGS. 4-5 are illustrated as full screen displays, they may also befully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A user mayindicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 4 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 400arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 400 may include grid 402 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 404, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 406, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 402 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 408, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 410. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 410 may be provided inprogram information region 412. Region 412 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L. P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc.

Internet content may include web events, such as a chat session orWebcast, or content available on-demand as streaming content ordownloadable content through an Internet web site or other Internetaccess (e.g. FTP).

Grid 402 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 414, recorded content listing 416, andInternet content listing 418. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 400 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings414, 416, and 418 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 402 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 402. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 420. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 420.)

Display 400 may also include video region 422, and options region 426.Video region 422 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs thatare currently available, will be available, or were available to theuser. The content of video region 422 may correspond to, or beindependent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 402. Griddisplays including a video region are sometimes referred to aspicture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalitiesare described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No.6,564,378, issued May 13, 4003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794,issued May 49, 4001, which are hereby incorporated by reference hereinin their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other mediaguidance application display screens of the embodiments describedherein.

Options region 426 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 426 may be part of display 400 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 426 may concern features related to program listings in grid 402or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 4D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.Tivo.com, from other media guidance applicationsthe user accesses, from other interactive applications the useraccesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.), and/orobtain information about the user from other sources that the mediaguidance application may access. As a result, a user can be providedwith a unified guidance application experience across the user'sdifferent user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 5. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 5. Video mosaic display 500 includes selectable options 502 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 500, television listings option 504 isselected, thus providing listings 506, 508, 510, and 512 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 500 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 508 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 514 and text portion 516.Media portion 514 and/or text portion 516 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 514 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 500 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 506 islarger than listings 508, 510, and 512), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 6 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 600. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 7.User equipment device 600 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 602. I/O path 602 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 604, which includesprocessing circuitry 606 and storage 608. Control circuitry 604 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 602. I/O path 602 may connect control circuitry 604 (andspecifically processing circuitry 606) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 6 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 604 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 606. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 604 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 608). Specifically, control circuitry 604 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 604 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 604 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 604 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 7). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 608 thatis part of control circuitry 604. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 608 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 7, may be used to supplementstorage 608 or instead of storage 608.

Control circuitry 604 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 604 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 600. Circuitry 404 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 608 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 600, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 608.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 604 using user inputinterface 610. User input interface 610 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 612 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 600. For example, display 612 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 610may be integrated with or combined with display 612. Display 612 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 612 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 612 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 612.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry604. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 604.Speakers 614 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 600 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 612 may be played throughspeakers 614. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers614.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 600. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage608), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 604 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 608 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 604 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 610. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 610 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 600 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 600. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 604 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 604) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 600. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 600.Equipment device 600 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 610 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 600 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 610.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 600 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 604). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 604 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 604. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 604. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 600 of FIG. 6 can be implemented in system 600 ofFIG. 6 as user television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604,wireless user communications device 606, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 7 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704, or awireless user communications device 706. For example, user televisionequipment 702 may, like some user computer equipment 704, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 704 may, like some television equipment 702, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 704, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 706.

In system 700, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 7 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 702, user computer equipment 704, wireless user communicationsdevice 706) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.Tivo.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 714.Namely, user television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704, andwireless user communications device 706 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 714 via communications paths 708, 710, and 712, respectively.Communications network 714 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 708, 710, and 712 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 712 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 7 it is awireless path and paths 708 and 710 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 7 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 708, 710, and 712, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 714.

System 700 includes content source 716 and media guidance data source718 coupled to communications network 714 via communication paths 720and 722, respectively. Paths 720 and 722 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 708, 710,and 712. Communications with the content source 716 and media guidancedata source 718 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 7 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 716 and media guidance data source 718, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 7 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 716 and media guidance data source 718 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 716 and 718 withuser equipment devices 702, 704, and 706 are shown as throughcommunications network 714, in some embodiments, sources 716 and 718 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 702, 704, and 706 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 708, 710, and 712.

Content source 716 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 716 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 716 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 716 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 718 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 718may be provided to users” equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 718 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 718 mayprovide user equipment devices 702, 704, and 706 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions that entice the user tokeep the particular service or source indicated by the score as one towhich the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 408, and executedby control circuitry 604 of a user equipment device 400. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 604 of user equipment device 600and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 718) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 718), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 718 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices702, 704, and 706 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 700 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 7.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 714.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 716 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 702 and user computer equipment 704may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 706 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 714. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 716 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 718. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704, and wirelessuser communications device 706. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 704 or wireless usercommunications device 706 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 704. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 714. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for storing a uservocal comment relating to a media asset for augmenting playback of themedia asset to another user to create a social viewing experience of themedia asset, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.Process 800 may be executed by control circuitry 604 (e.g., in a mannerinstructed to control circuitry 604 by the media guidance application).Control circuitry 604 may be part of user equipment (e.g., userequipment 106, which may have the functionality of any or all of usertelevision equipment 702, user computer equipment 704, and/or wirelesscommunications device 706), or of a remote server separated from theuser equipment by way of communications network 714.

Process 800 begins at 802, where control circuitry 604 generates fordisplay, e.g., via the display circuitry 612 in FIG. 6, at first userequipment and at a first time, a media asset to a first user. At 804,control circuitry 604 captures, via audio capturing circuitry (e.g., viaI/O path 604 I FIG. 6), when the media asset is being played at a firstplayback position, an audio recording of ambient sound from anenvironment at which the first user is present. For example, controlcircuitry 604 engages a video camera or an audio recorder 110 in FIG. 1to record via I/O path 602 in FIG. 6, sound from the environment. At806, control circuitry 604 determines whether the audio recording ofambient sound includes a vocal expression from the first user. Forexample, control circuitry 604 analyzes audio characteristics of theaudio recording and compares the audio characteristics with user vocalcharacteristics retrieved from a user profile, e.g., from storage 608 inFIG. 6 or data source 718 in FIG. 7.

At 808, in response to determining that the audio recording of ambientsound includes a vocal expression from the first user, process 800proceeds to 810. Otherwise, in response to determining that the audiorecording of ambient sound does not include a vocal expression from thefirst user, process 800 goes back to 804 to continue monitoring ambientnoise from the environment. At 810, control circuitry 604 retrieves asegment of the media asset prior to the first playback position. Forexample, when the media asset is live streaming from a channel, controlcircuitry 604 buffers and then retrieves the buffered segment fromstorage 608 in FIG. 6. For another example, when the media asset is apreviously stored asset, control circuitry 604 retrieves the segmentfrom storage 608 in FIG. 6 (e.g., the local storage of a set-top box),or data source 716 in FIG. 7 (e.g., network storage, etc.). At 812,control circuitry 604 retrieves metadata corresponding to the segment ofthe media asset, e.g., from storage 608 in FIG. 6 or data source 718 inFIG. 7. At 814, control circuitry 604 monitors user activity during atime period corresponding to the segment of the media asset. Forexample, control circuitry 604 engages a video camera or an audiorecorder 110 in FIG. 1 to record via I/O path 602 in FIG. 6, video oraudio from the environment where the first user is present. At 816,control circuitry 604 determines, based at least on the user activityand the metadata, whether the vocal expression is related to anoccurrence during the segment of the media asset, as further describedin an embodiment in FIG. 10.

At 818, in response to determining that the vocal expression is relatedto an occurrence during the segment of the media asset, process 800proceeds to 820, where control circuitry 604 stores the vocal expressionin connection with the first playback position of the media asset, e.g.,at storage 608 in FIG. 6 or data source 718 in FIG. 7. At 822, controlcircuitry 604 causes, when the media asset is displayed at a second timelater than the first time to a second user, the stored vocal expressionto be played back at the first playback position of the media asset. At818, in response to determining that the vocal expression is related toan occurrence during the segment of the media asset, process 800proceeds to 824, wherein control circuitry 604 discards the vocalexpression.

FIG. 9 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for determining,based at least on the user activity and the metadata, whether the vocalexpression is related to the occurrence during the segment of the mediaasset (e.g., see 816 in FIG. 8), in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure. Process 900 may be executed by control circuitry 604(e.g., in a manner instructed to control circuitry 604 by the mediaguidance application). Control circuitry 604 may be part of userequipment (e.g., user equipment 106, user television equipment 702, usercomputer equipment 704, and/or wireless communications device 706), orof a remote server separated from the user equipment by way ofcommunications network 714.

Process 900 begins at 902, where control circuitry 604 identifies one ormore terms from the retrieved metadata corresponding to the segment ofthe media asset that is immediately before the first playback positionof the media asset. At 904, control circuitry 604 retrieves a data graphrepresenting a logic relationship between content terms relating to themedia asset. For example, control circuitry 604 retrieves the data graphfrom data source 718 in FIG. 7, which includes a data structure having aplurality of nodes and edges. Each node represents a natural languageterm, and each edge connecting two nodes represents a relationshipbetween the two natural language terms. At 906, control circuitry 604determines, from the data graph, a first node representing at least oneof the one or more keywords from the vocal expression. At 908, controlcircuitry 604 determines, from the data graph, a second noderepresenting at least one of the identified one or more terms from theretrieved metadata. For example, control circuitry 604 transmits a querybased on the one or more keyword or the terms to the data source 718 inFIG. 7 via communications network 714, and receives a pointer orparameters identifying a position of the first or the second node. At910, control circuitry 604 determines, based on the data graph, aconnection between the first node and the second node. For example,control circuitry 604 receives, from the data graph stored at datasource 718 in FIG. 7, information relating to a number of edges andintermediate nodes that the connection traverses on the data graph.

At 912, in response to determining that the length of the connection issmaller than a pre-defined distance, process 900 proceeds to 914, wherecontrol circuitry 604 determines that the vocal expression is related tothe at least one term representing an occurrence during the segment ofthe media asset. At 916, control circuitry 604 determines, based oncharacteristics of the connection between the first node and the secondnode, a type of a relationship between at least one of the one or morekeywords from the vocal expression and at least one of the identifiedone or more terms from the retrieved metadata. For example, controlcircuitry 604 receives information relating to each edge thatconstitutes the connection, and the information identifies whether therespective edge represents a causal logic.

At 918, in response to determining that the type of relationship is acausal relationship, process 900 proceeds to 920, where controlcircuitry 604 assigns a first priority score to the at least onekeyword. At 918, in response to determining that the type ofrelationship is a causal relationship, process 900 proceeds to 922,where control circuitry 604 assigns a second priority score that islower than the first priority score to the at least one keyword. At 924,control circuitry 604 transmits, to a server (e.g., data source 718 inFIG. 7 for storage), the vocal expression in connection with an assignedpriority score and the first playback position of the media asset.

FIG. 10 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for determiningwhether to share the vocal expression with another user based on privacysettings prior to causing, when the media asset is displayed at a secondtime later than the first time to a second user, the stored vocalexpression to be played back at the first playback position of the mediaasset (e.g., see 822 in FIG. 8), in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure. Process 1000 may be executed by control circuitry 604(e.g., in a manner instructed to control circuitry 604 by the mediaguidance application). Control circuitry 604 may be part of userequipment (e.g., user equipment 106, user television equipment 702, usercomputer equipment 704, and/or wireless communications device 706), orof a remote server separated from the user equipment by way ofcommunications network 714.

Process 1000 begins at 1002, where control circuitry 604 receives anindication that the media asset is being played to the second user. Forexample, as shown and discussed in relation to in FIG. 1, when the mediaasset 108 is played at a different user equipment at a later time,control circuitry 604 receives an indication, e.g., via communicationsnetwork 714 in FIG. 7, that the media asset is being played at adifferent household or a different device. At 1004, control circuitry604 queries a user database, e.g., at data source 718 in FIG. 7 orstorage 608 in FIG. 6, for a user profile corresponding to the seconduser. At 1006, control circuitry 604 determines a social connectionbetween the first user and the second user based on the user profilecorresponding to the second user. For example, control circuitry 604parses the user social profile of the first user and the second user todetermine whether the first user is an influencer, a follower, a directfriend, or any other relationship with the second user. At 1008, controlcircuitry 604 retrieves a privacy setting profile corresponding to thefirst user. At 1010, control circuitry 604 determines whether the seconduser is an authorized user to share the vocal expression from the firstuser by comparing the connection between the first user and the seconduser with the privacy setting profile.

At 1012, in response to determining that the second user is anauthorized user to share the vocal expression, process 1000 proceeds to1014, where control circuitry 604 causes, when the media asset isdisplayed at the second time later than the first time to a second user,the stored vocal expression to be played back at the first playbackposition of the media asset. For example, as discussed in relation toFIG. 1, control circuitry 604 generates for playback the audio filecorresponding to the vocal expression, or sends the audio file via I/Opath 602 in FIG. 6 for display at an audio device, e.g., an AR device, auser mobile device, and/or the like. At 1012, in response to determiningthat the second user is an authorized user to share the vocalexpression, process 1000 proceeds to 1016, where control circuitry 604refrains from playing back the vocal expression.

FIG. 11 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for filteringvocal expressions stored with a media asset when causing, when the mediaasset is displayed at a second time later than the first time to asecond user, the stored vocal expression to be played back at the firstplayback position of the media asset (e.g., see 822 in FIG. 8), inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Process 1100 may beexecuted by control circuitry 604 (e.g., in a manner instructed tocontrol circuitry 604 by the media guidance application). Controlcircuitry 604 may be part of user equipment (e.g., user equipment 106,user television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704, and/orwireless communications device 706), or of a remote server separatedfrom the user equipment by way of communications network 714.

Process 1100 begins at 1102, where control circuitry 604 retrieves afirst vocal expression corresponding to the first playback position andretrieving a second vocal expression corresponding to the secondplayback position, e.g., from storage 608 in FIG. 6 or data source 718in FIG. 7. At 1104, control circuitry 604 determines whether an amountof time between the first playback position and the second playbackposition is smaller than a threshold. At 1106, in response todetermining that the amount of time is less than a threshold, process1100 proceeds to 1108, where control circuitry 604 selects one of thefirst vocal expression and the second vocal expression that has a higherpriority score, and generates for audio playback the selected vocalexpression at a corresponding playback position at 1110. At 1106, inresponse to determining that the amount of time is not less than athreshold, process 1100 proceeds to 1112, where control circuitry 604,wherein control circuitry 604 refrains from generating for audioplayback one of the first vocal expression and the second vocalexpression that has a lower priority score.

It should be noted that processes 800-1100 or any step thereof could beperformed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in, or describedwith respect to, FIGS. 1-3 and 6-7. For example, any of processes800-1100 may be executed by control circuitry 604 (FIG. 6) as instructedby control circuitry implemented on user equipment 106 (FIG. 1), 702,704, 706 (FIG. 6), and/or the like for generating and displaying asummary view of a media asset. In addition, one or more steps ofprocesses 800-1100 may be incorporated into or combined with one or moresteps of any other process or embodiment.

It is contemplated that the actions or descriptions of each of FIGS.8-11 may be used with any other embodiment of this disclosure. Inaddition, the actions and descriptions described in relation to FIGS.8-11 may be done in alternative orders or in parallel to further thepurposes of this disclosure. For example, each of these steps may beperformed in any order or in parallel or substantially simultaneously toreduce lag or increase the speed of the system or method. Furthermore,it should be noted that any of the devices or equipment discussed inrelation to FIGS. 1-11 could be used to perform one or more of theactions in FIGS. 8-11.

It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that methodsinvolved in the present disclosure may be embodied in a computer programproduct that includes a computer-usable and/or readable medium. Forexample, such a computer-usable medium may consist of a read-only memorydevice, such as a CD-ROM disk or conventional ROM device, or a randomaccess memory, such as a hard drive device or a computer diskette,having a computer-readable program code stored thereon. It should alsobe understood that methods, techniques, and processes involved in thepresent disclosure may be executed using processing circuitry. Forinstance, determining whether a vocal expression is related to anoccurrent in the media asset (see 816 in FIG. 8), e.g., by processingcircuitry 606 of FIG. 6. The processing circuitry, for instance, may bea general purpose processor, a customized integrated circuit (e.g., anASIC), or a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) within user equipment600, media content source 716, or media guidance data source 718. Forexample, the attributes of media assets, may be stored in, and retrievedfrom, storage 608 of FIG. 6, or media guidance data source 718 of FIG.7. Furthermore, processing circuitry, or a computer program, may updateconfiguration data of the media guidance application, which may bestored within storage 608 of FIG. 6 or media guidance data source 718 ofFIG. 7.

The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of theprocesses discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/orrearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departingfrom the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure ismeant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow aremeant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitationsdescribed in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodimentherein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may becombined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, done indifferent orders, or done in parallel. In addition, the systems andmethods described herein may be performed in real time. It should alsobe noted, the systems and/or methods described above may be applied to,or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.

While some portions of this disclosure may make reference to“convention,” any such reference is merely for the purpose of providingcontext to the invention(s) of the instant disclosure, and does not formany admission as to what constitutes the state of the art.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for supplementing a segment of a mediaasset with a vocal expression captured during a previous output of thesegment, the method comprising: capturing user physiological data duringa first output of a media asset segment; capturing an audio clip duringthe first output; parsing the audio clip to a vocal expression;determining, based on the user physiological data, whether the vocalexpression is not caused by an event unrelated to the media assetsegment; in response to determining that the vocal expression is notcaused by an event unrelated to the media asset segment, storing thevocal expression in connection with the media asset segment; detecting asecond output of the media asset segment; and outputting the storedvocal expression during the second output.
 2. The method of claim 1,further comprising: in response to determining that the vocal expressionis caused by an event unrelated to the media asset segment, not storingthe vocal expression in connection with the media asset segment.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein parsing the audio clip to the vocalexpression comprises: extracting a set of mono audio signals from theaudio clip; for each mono audio signal from the set of mono audiosignals: generating a set of audio characteristics corresponding to themono audio signal; retrieving a set of vocal characteristics from a userprofile; comparing each characteristic of the set of audiocharacteristics with a corresponding characteristic from the set ofvocal characteristics that has a same type; determining whether the setof audio characteristics and the set of vocal characteristics overlapfor more than a similarity threshold; in response to determining thatthe set of audio characteristics and the set of vocal characteristicsoverlap for more than the similarity threshold, identifying therespective mono audio signal as corresponding to the vocal expression.4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining, based on the userphysiological data, whether the vocal expression is caused by the eventunrelated to the media asset segment comprises: identifying, via speechrecognition analysis, one or more keywords from the vocal expression;retrieving metadata corresponding to the media asset segment; comparingthe retrieved metadata with the one or more keywords; determining, basedon the comparing, that the vocal expression is not caused by the event.5. The method of claim 4, wherein comparing the retrieved metadata withthe one or more keywords further comprises: identifying one or moreterms from the retrieved metadata corresponding to the media assetsegment; retrieving a data graph representing a logic relationshipbetween content terms relating to a media asset comprising the mediaasset segment; determining, from the data graph, a first noderepresenting at least one of the one or more keywords from the vocalexpression; determining, from the data graph, a second node representingat least one of the identified one or more terms from the retrievedmetadata; determining, based on the data graph, a connection between thefirst node and the second node; in response to determining that a lengthof the connection between the first node and the second node is shorterthan a pre-defined distance, determining that the vocal expression isrelated to the at least one term representing an occurrence during thesegment of the media asset; determining, based on characteristics of theconnection between the first node and the second node, a type of arelationship between at least one of the one or more keywords from thevocal expression and at least one of the identified one or more termsfrom the retrieved metadata; in response to determining that the type ofthe relationship is a causal relationship, assigning a first priorityscore to the at least one keyword; in response to determining that thetype of the relationship is a non-causal relationship, assigning asecond priority score that is lower than the first priority score to theat least one keyword; and transmitting, to a server, the vocalexpression in connection with an assigned priority score.
 6. The methodof claim 1, wherein capturing the audio clip occurs at an end point ofthe media asset segment during the first output and wherein outputtingthe stored vocal expression occurs at the end point of the media assetsegment during the second output.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein thevocal expression is of a first user, and wherein outputting the storedvocal expression at the end point of the media asset segment during thesecond output comprises: receiving an indication that the media assetsegment is being output to a second user during the second output;querying a user database for a user profile corresponding to the seconduser; determining a connection between the first user and the seconduser based on the user profile corresponding to the second user;retrieving a privacy setting profile corresponding to the first user;determining whether the second user is an authorized user to share thevocal expression from the first user by comparing the connection betweenthe first user and the second user with the privacy setting profile; inresponse to determining that the second user is the authorized user toshare the vocal expression from the first user, outputting the storedvocal expression at the end point of the media asset segment during thesecond output.
 8. The method of claim 6, wherein outputting the storedvocal expression at the end point of the media asset segment during thesecond output comprises: receiving a request to output the media assetsegment at user equipment; generating, for display on the userequipment, the media asset segment; retrieving, from a local database,the stored vocal expression; and generating for audio playback thestored vocal expression at the end point of the media asset segment. 9.The method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting, to a server, aquery for vocal expressions from other users, wherein the vocalexpressions relate to a media asset comprising the media asset segment;in response to the query, receiving, from the server, a plurality ofvocal expressions relating to the media asset, each vocal expressioncorresponding to a respective user identifier and a respective playbackposition when the respective vocal expression was recorded; determininga subset of the plurality of vocal expressions based on a socialrelationship between each respective user and a first user associatedwith the first output; and generating for audio playback the subset ofthe plurality of vocal expressions at each respective playback positionof the media asset.
 10. A system for supplementing a segment of a mediaasset with a vocal expression captured during a previous output of thesegment, the system comprising: control circuitry configured to: captureuser physiological data during a first output of a media asset segment;capture an audio clip during the first output; parse the audio clip to avocal expression; determine, based on the user physiological data,whether the vocal expression is not caused by an event unrelated to themedia asset segment; in response to determining that the vocalexpression is not caused by an event unrelated to the media assetsegment, store the vocal expression in connection with the media assetsegment; detect a second output of the media asset segment; and outputthe stored vocal expression during the second output.
 11. The system ofclaim 10, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: inresponse to determining that the vocal expression is caused by an eventunrelated to the media asset segment, not store the vocal expression inconnection with the media asset segment.
 12. The system of claim 10,wherein the control circuitry is further configured to parse the audioclip to the vocal expression by: extracting a set of mono audio signalsfrom the audio clip; for each mono audio signal from the set of monoaudio signals: generating a set of audio characteristics correspondingto the mono audio signal; retrieving a set of vocal characteristics froma user profile; comparing each characteristic of the set of audiocharacteristics with a corresponding characteristic from the set ofvocal characteristics that has a same type; determining whether the setof audio characteristics and the set of vocal characteristics overlapfor more than a similarity threshold; in response to determining thatthe set of audio characteristics and the set of vocal characteristicsoverlap for more than the similarity threshold, identifying therespective mono audio signal as corresponding to the vocal expression.13. The system of claim 10, wherein the control circuitry is furtherconfigured to determine, based on the user physiological data, whetherthe vocal expression is caused by the event unrelated to the media assetsegment by: identify, via speech recognition analysis, one or morekeywords from the vocal expression; retrieve metadata corresponding tothe media asset segment; compare the retrieved metadata with the one ormore keywords; determine, based on the comparing, that the vocalexpression is not caused by the event.
 14. The system of claim 13,wherein the control circuitry is further configured to compare theretrieved metadata with the one or more keywords by: identifying one ormore terms from the retrieved metadata corresponding to the media assetsegment; retrieving a data graph representing a logic relationshipbetween content terms relating to a media asset comprising the mediaasset segment; determining, from the data graph, a first noderepresenting at least one of the one or more keywords from the vocalexpression; determining, from the data graph, a second node representingat least one of the identified one or more terms from the retrievedmetadata; determining, based on the data graph, a connection between thefirst node and the second node; in response to determining that a lengthof the connection between the first node and the second node is shorterthan a pre-defined distance, determining that the vocal expression isrelated to the at least one term representing an occurrence during thesegment of the media asset; determining, based on characteristics of theconnection between the first node and the second node, a type of arelationship between at least one of the one or more keywords from thevocal expression and at least one of the identified one or more termsfrom the retrieved metadata; in response to determining that the type ofthe relationship is a causal relationship, assigning a first priorityscore to the at least one keyword; in response to determining that thetype of the relationship is a non-causal relationship, assigning asecond priority score that is lower than the first priority score to theat least one keyword; and transmitting, to a server, the vocalexpression in connection with an assigned priority score.
 15. The systemof claim 10, wherein the control circuitry is further configured tocapture the audio clip at an end point of the media asset segment duringthe first output and wherein the control circuitry is further configuredto output the stored vocal expression at the end point of the mediaasset segment during the second output.
 16. The system of claim 15,wherein the vocal expression is of a first user, and wherein the controlcircuitry is further configured to output the stored vocal expression atthe end point of the media asset segment during the second output by:receiving an indication that the media asset segment is being output toa second user during the second output; querying a user database for auser profile corresponding to the second user; determining a connectionbetween the first user and the second user based on the user profilecorresponding to the second user; retrieving a privacy setting profilecorresponding to the first user; determining whether the second user isan authorized user to share the vocal expression from the first user bycomparing the connection between the first user and the second user withthe privacy setting profile; in response to determining that the seconduser is the authorized user to share the vocal expression from the firstuser, outputting the stored vocal expression at the end point of themedia asset segment during the second output.
 17. The system of claim15, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to output thestored vocal expression at the end point of the media asset segmentduring the second output by: receiving a request to output the mediaasset segment at user equipment; generating, for display on the userequipment, the media asset segment; retrieving, from a local database,the stored vocal expression; and generating for audio playback thestored vocal expression at the end point of the media asset segment. 18.The system of claim 10, wherein the control circuitry is furtherconfigured to: transmit, to a server, a query for vocal expressions fromother users, wherein the vocal expressions relate to a media assetcomprising the media asset segment; in response to the query, receive,from the server, a plurality of vocal expressions relating to the mediaasset, each vocal expression corresponding to a respective useridentifier and a respective playback position when the respective vocalexpression was recorded; determine a subset of the plurality of vocalexpressions based on a social relationship between each respective userand a first user associated with the first output; and generate foraudio playback the subset of the plurality of vocal expressions at eachrespective playback position of the media asset.